


home (is wherever i'm with you)

by nikkiRA



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, like literally string me upside down and beat me to death this is disgusting, literally kill me, the title alone is horrid, this is so fucking cheesy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 06:21:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7746496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikkiRA/pseuds/nikkiRA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance sighs and slumps against him. He isn’t entirely sure what this whole thing is with them; they had long moved past the rivalry that had bordered on outright dislike, and somewhere along the line they had moved past teammates, into the territory of friends. It was hard not to, when you had to trust someone with your life.</p><p>And now here they are. Keith doesn’t know what to call this, side by side, hands clasped, heart beating in his throat. Doesn’t know what to call the boy who sits beside him, who has become so much more than a friend.</p><p>Maybe he’ll call it home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	home (is wherever i'm with you)

**Author's Note:**

> this is so fucking cheesy if you're lactose intolerant please stay away i'm actually disgusted with myself

When Keith had been at the Garrison, one of his instructors had said, at the beginning of their first class, “This is your only warning – this is not a joke. This is not a dream. This is real, and if you’re only here because of some childhood dream to see the stars, then go. This program is serious. You will be farther from home than you can imagine. If you don’t think you can handle that, this is your one chance to get out before you learn the hard way.”

There had been an awkward silence that had spread among the class. No one had left, although some people did exchange nervous glances. And then one of the students near the back had said, “Home isn’t a place, it’s a person.”

There had been some snorts at that. The instructor had rolled his eyes and said, “Whatever your definition of home is, my damn point still stands.”

Keith had strongly resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

He always thought that that was something only people with homes thought.

* * *

He finds Lance where he always finds Lance. He is sitting on the floor, back against the wall, knees pulled up to his chest. Keith looks up at the projection of the solar system. Stars and planets dance in front of his face. He has been all over the galaxy, but this is still the one he knows the best.

“Do you sleep anymore?”

“I could say the same to you.”

Keith sits down next to Lance, mirroring his position. He leans his head back on the wall.

“I couldn’t sleep,” is all he says. He doesn’t say that he came looking for Lance; that’s a secret he doesn’t even like to admit to himself.

“Do you ever miss home, Keith?”

Keith looks up at the stars and finds Earth. He wonders what Lance feels when he looks at.

“I never had much of a home,” he says. Just a house in the desert that was really more of a shack. Thinking back to the first day of school, Keith decides it doesn’t matter whether home was a place or a person; Keith had neither.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He laughs bitterly. “No,” he says. Lance shifts next to him and Keith realizes he was trying to be supportive. “Thanks, though.”

Lance shrugs, stretching his legs out in front of him.

Silence settles among them, and eventually Keith works up the courage to ask, “Does doing this help? Or does it make it worse?”

Lance sighs. “It helps seeing Earth. Knowing how far away it is makes it worse.”

“We’ll get back there. Sometime soon. You’ll be home again.”

“I just… I left without a word. My family probably thinks I’m dead. Do you ever think about that? That we left without a word, without a goodbye?”

Keith studies the planet, tries to decide what it makes him feel. “I don’t have anybody to miss me,” he says quietly. It comes out much more self-pitying than he had hoped. Keith doesn’t pity himself; it’s just a fact.

Lance’s fingers slip over Keith’s wrist, circling it. He hopes Lance can’t feel the way his pulse speeds up.

Lance doesn’t say anything this time, just keeps his fingers circled around Keith’s wrist. It is comforting in a way he never imagined someone’s touch could be. It tethers him.

_Home isn’t a place, it’s a person._

He doesn’t think he’d go so far as to say that applies to him, but he thinks he’s finally understanding what that student meant.

* * *

“Shiro and Allura are kissing.”

Lance sits upright. Hunk stops with his spoon half way to his mouth.

“Wait, _what?”_

Pidge shrugs and sits down next to Keith, filling their plate with food. “I wanted to ask Allura about a function of the castle but when I went looking for her I found… that.”

Lance stands up. “Where?”

Keith grabs his sleeve and pulls him back into his seat. “Don’t go looking, you pervert.”

“I didn’t want to go _looking!_ I just… wanted to…” Lance clearly can’t think of a suitable excuse, so he just glares at Keith and then turns back to his lunch.

“Lance is just jealous that it’s not him Allura is kissing,” Pidge says around a mouthful of food. Keith looks down at his plate.

“I am not!” He sits back and crosses his arms. “Is Shiro really more attractive than me?”

“I am not answering that,” Keith says.

* * *

He finds Lance in the usual place.

“Do you ever get lonely?”

Keith crosses his legs. “I don’t know.”

“How do you not know if you’re lonely or not?”

He shrugs. “I’ve always been alone. Maybe I am lonely, but I’ve never known anything else.”

Lance is silent for a moment before he says, “You know, every time I talk to you I get closer and closer to flinging myself into space.”

Keith lets out a surprised bark of laughter. “Thanks.”

“You’re probably the most depressing person I’ve ever met.”

“You’re the one asking all the questions.”

“I don’t want to kiss Allura,” Lance says out of nowhere, voice quiet. Keith isn’t sure what he’s supposed to say to that. Isn’t sure why it makes him feel relieved.

“Okay,” is all he says. “I’m sure the feeling is mutual.”

Lance elbows him in the stomach. Keith lets out a pained grunt and aims a kick at Lance, who just laughs.

They are quiet for a little. Keith stares up at the earth and listens to Lance breathing beside him. Their shoulders are touching.

“You know what I miss most about Earth?”

“Real food?”

“Yeah, actually. But like, specifically my mother’s cupcakes. God, she made the best cupcakes. She made the best everything, really, but especially her cupcakes. I don’t even know why they were so good. She would never tell me. She said it was a secret recipe. I would do anything for one of those cupcakes right now. Wait until you have one. She sent me some at school, Hunk says they’re to die for.”

Keith sits frozen. Lance must either sense or feel the way he tenses up, because he shoots him a look. “What? Do you not like cupcakes? Because that’s fine – well, no, it’s not fine, it’s fucking weird, but if you really don’t like cupcakes she makes killer muffins, too, and muffins are basically just boring cupcakes.”

“I – you want me to meet your mother?”

Lance gives him a funny look. “Well, duh. What, you think we’re going to land back home and never talk to each other again?”

“I…” Truthfully Keith hadn’t thought about what would happen when they got home. He had assumed they would revert to how it used to be; Lance, Pidge and Hunk, together back at school, probably hailed as heroes; Shiro would tell his story and go back to being one of the most well respected people at the Garrison; and Keith would go back to his shack, a dropout with an attitude problem once more.

“Don’t be an idiot, Keith,” Lance says with a scoff. “We’re a team. We’re gonna land back on Earth and people will cry and ladies will fling themselves at my feet and my mother will make us cupcakes and she’ll add in a batch of muffins just for you. Boring muffins for a boring guy.”

“I’m not boring,” he protests, but he’s thinking about Earth, thinking about landing, about being home again, about figuring out what that is. “And I do like cupcakes.”

“Nope, too late, you lost your chance, you’re getting muffins.”

Keith laughs and kicks Lance lightly again. “Fuck you, McClain.”

“That’s no way to speak to one of the saviors of the galaxy.”

“We haven’t saved anything yet.”

“We will,” Lance says with confidence. He nudges Keith lightly with his foot. “We have to.”

Keith looks at Lance, who is smiling softly. He gives a small smile back.

“Those damn cupcakes better be as good as you say they are.”

“Muffins. You get muffins.”

Keith laughs. Lance lets his hand drop between them and wraps his fingers around Keith’s wrist again, and as they sit and look at the stars, he taps out an absentminded rhythm on Keith’s skin.

* * *

The day before they head back home, he goes looking for Lance. This time it is not their solar system he is looking at; he has put the projection on some kind of random setting, and every few minutes it shows a different system.

“You’re not looking at Earth.”

He takes his normal seat next to Lance and leans his head back, but he is really watching Lance out of the corner of his eye. Lance is staring up at the stars almost hungrily.

“I used to dream about them. Stars, I mean. Now all I want is to go home.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

This time Lance’s fingers slip right past his wrist and twine themselves around Keith’s own fingers. Keith fights to keep his breathing steady.

“I’m afraid,” Lance admits.

“What are you afraid of?”

“It’s been so long. What if it doesn’t feel like home anymore?”

“Home isn’t a place, it’s a person.”

Lance raises his eyebrows. “That was very poetic.”

“Shut up.”

“No, seriously! It was beautiful, Keith, I’m impressed.”

“Have I ever mentioned that I hate you?”

Lance laughs and squeezes Keith’s hand. “It brought a tear to my eye.”

Keith rolls his eyes and tries to extract his hand from Lance’s, who laughs again and tugs him closer. Keith rests with his shoulder pressed tight against Lance’s. Not for the first time he is thankful he has gloves to hide the clamminess of his palms.

“You don’t have to be afraid to go home.” _At least you have a home to go to._

Lance sighs and slumps against him. He isn’t entirely sure what this whole thing is with them; they had long moved past the rivalry that had bordered on outright dislike, and somewhere along the line they had moved past teammates, into the territory of friends. It was hard not to, when you had to trust someone with your life.

And now here they are. Keith doesn’t know what to call this, side by side, hands clasped, heart beating in his throat. Doesn’t know what to call the boy who sits beside him, who has become so much more than a friend.

Maybe he’ll call it _home._

They have been away from home for so long that they had to build their own.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Lance says, staring up at the random rotating projection of the galaxy.

“If I remember, there will be crying and women will fling themselves at your feet. Also there were going to be cupcakes.”

Lance laughs, and when Keith shoots him a glance he is surprised to see that he is crying quietly. “Right. But you only get muffins. Because they’re –”

“Boring.” Keith fills in. Lance grins at him.

“Just like you.” Lance pulls Keith’s hand into his lap. “I never asked why you wear gloves.”

Keith shrugs. “I don’t know, really. It’s just… a thing.”

“The Keith Kogane aesthetic.”

He laughs. “Yeah.”

“You have a nice laugh,” Lance says out of nowhere. Keith ducks his head to hide his blush.

“Did you get hit on the head?”

“So you can recite poetry but I can’t tell you that you have a nice laugh?”

“I wasn’t reciting poetry!”

“Don’t be ashamed, Keith, I have incited many people to create poetry.”

“Poetry about how annoying you are, maybe.”

“That’s no way to talk to the saviour of the galaxy.”

“Saving the galaxy was a group effort,” Keith retorts.

“Led by me.”

Keith just shakes his head. “So you’re back home. You have women at your feet and cupcakes being offered to you. What do you do?”

Lance considers this. He is still holding Keith’s hand. “I just want to go home and sleep in my own bed for once.”

“Now who’s boring?”

“Hey, I’ve had months of living a super exciting life. I miss boring. I need boring.”

 _I’m boring,_ Keith can’t help but think.

Truthfully Keith is afraid of heading back to Earth. He’s never felt like it was home, never had the same connection the others did. The only home Keith had ever known had been on this ship.

“We should go to sleep,” Lance says eventually. Keith doesn’t really want to leave the comfort of this room and the stars above him, Lance pressed against him. He doesn’t know how things will be on Earth, and despite what Lance might say, Keith doesn’t have much faith that with all of Earth at their feet, the rest of them will want to stick around Keith and his moodiness.

“Yeah,” is all he says. Lance lets go of his hand to stand up, but he sticks it out again to help Keith up, and when Keith stands, Lance keeps a hold of his hand.

Keith has never been afraid of being left behind before.

“I’m afraid, too,” he admits.

Lance squeezes his hand.

* * *

The day they land on Earth, Lance meets him outside his room. He is pale and antsy, bouncing from foot to foot.

“Ready?”

 _Home is not a place, it’s a person._ It is lame and cheesy but Keith has a funny feeling that even off this ship, home will follow him with these people, these friends he has made, Pidge and Hunk and Shiro and Allura and Coran and this stupid, utterly ridiculous boy standing in front of him. He isn’t entirely sure when he stopped being so jaded and guarded, but saving the galaxy with a handful of other people tends to involve your walls breaking down.

“Not even remotely,” Lance says with a nervous grin. Keith takes his outstretched hand, but instead of leaving, Lance pulls him towards him and kisses him gently.

Hand in hand, they leave to meet the Earth.

**Author's Note:**

> listen.........i'm sorry for this
> 
> Tumblr @sirixsblacks


End file.
